Dr Vivek Hallegere Murthy, 37, has been confirmed Surgeon-General of the United States. He will be the youngest Surgeon-General in the office's 144 year history that has seen just 18 incumbents before.
Murthy is so young, some lawmakers tasked with confirming him to the post wondered if his ten year medical experience qualified him for the job in the time of Ebola and other crises, even though he is a double graduate prodigy from Yale, concurrently earning an MD from the School of Medicine and an MBA from the School of Management in 2003. He is currently teaching at Harvard Medical School.
He will also be the first person of Indian-origin to hold the office that no one of foreign origin had ever held, not including 3 African America Surgeon-Generals. Murthy will also hold the rank of 3-star vice-admiral commanding a commissioned corps of 6500 health care professionals, because the Surgeon-General office emerged in 1870 from the military and was originally envisaged by law as one of the seven uniformed services of the US.
Murthy's views on guns contributed to a year-long debate that lead to his confirmation, and re-ignited the subject of gun control that is at the heart of America's sometimes cherished, sometimes reviled Second Amendment – The Right to Bear Arms. In a letter Murthy sent to Congress on behalf of Doctors for America he wrote "As health care professionals who are confronted with the human cost of gun violence every day, we are unwavering in our belief that strong measures to reduce gun violence must be taken immediately.
Murthy who is single is the son of immigrant parents who hailed from Karnataka. Vivek was born in London and grew up in Miami, where he haunted his father's medical practice as a child. In 1995 he and his sister founded VISIONS Worldwide, a nonprofit dedicated to AIDs and HIV education in India.
NRIs exulted at his confirmation, coming as it did shortly after another Obama nominee Richard Rahul Verma was appointed US Ambassador to India.